(This essay is dedicated to all dreamers who
pursue their dreams irrespective, and all the teachers who motivate, teach and stand solid
with them creating generations of Jonathans who go beyond themselves to make
this world a better place)
FINDING
JONATHAN!
First time i met Jonathan
I first got
hold of Jonathan Livingston Seagull when I had just cleared my board exams and
was poised to enter the professional world of medicine.
The author
Richard Bach, a professional pilot by training, narrates the story of an
extraordinary seagull called Jonathan who goes against the flock and learns to
fly high where 'no gull has gone', braving death and conquering fear to achieve
his dream. For most gulls, life is just about eating and surviving. Flying is
just a means to find food. None in the flock have ever dared to, or rather even
thought about flying to greater heights. Flying high or venturing into the
unknown came with its risk of injury and death and none ventured
into the unseen. The community of gulls was so particular about not allowing
the gulls to do anything but find food as their only mission and aim in life
that anyone who even thought of revolting was banished forever from the
community into the land where
Then comes
along Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a tiny seagull who loves to fly. He
experiments with glides, sweeps and heights even doing the stalling mid-way
much to horror of his parents who could not fathom why he did not live to eat
like the rest. You are all bone and feathers, screams his mother in agony
looking at her son who has lost interest in food while pursuing his passion.
Winter is coming and you need to store food, so get back to doing what other
gulls are doing, reprimands his father. Jonathan does not heed their worried
calls and continues to perfect his flying techniques, modifying height and
speed and always trying to break his
limitations brought about by his physical and mental self. His experiments of flying from great heights,
curving his wings below the body and gliding ever so smoothly, stalling mid-way
and reaching the skies, where lie his dreams, continue unabated, unmindful of
the hardships that come along its way. The elders in the flock disapprove of
his un-gull like behavior, shame him for doing the unthinkable and banish him
from the flock forever. Saddened but not disheartened, Jonathan tries to
explain to the flock the joy of finding the strength to fly beyond your
universe to realise your dreams and potentials and not just live to eat but the
flock elders are unperturbed and blind to his pleas.
Eventually, Jonathan flies
away to a distant land, pursuing his dream of learning to fly higher and higher,
unmindful of day or night, food or water, flock or loneliness. He is eventually
guided by angel gulls to a higher world where he finds gulls that have a
similar purpose as him and a teacher who helps him to understand the pursuit of
happiness and more importantly, the responsibility of carrying the teachings of
love and following your heart. Eventually he becomes the teacher to outcasts
like Fletcher Gull and Kirk Maynard Gull whom he teaches to fly against odds
like wing injuries and fear of heights. In his words, " Maynard Gull, you
have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can
stand in your way." Maynard Gull who is barely dragging his broken wings
finds the power to spread the wings and fly to freedom. Gradually, the taught
become the teachers and its time for Jonathan to fly away into the silver sky
beyond nothing.
Meeting Jonathan as a young student
Quote
"I don't
mind being bones and feathers.
I just want
to know what I can do in the air and what I can't. That's all.
I just want to
know."
Unquote
As a hard
working ambitious student I just wanted to soar ahead. Performance mattered at that time and all I
wanted was to be in the top rung of performers. Jonathan Livingston inspired me
to plough on and march ahead to find my happiness. Then came the time to
realise my dream of becoming a doctor. He was there with me, nudging and
pushing, helping me to fight hard to get there where I wanted to go. My
selection of the subject of my choice during that time, as specialisation, inspired by Jonathan, was like swimming against the current and getting into deep troubled waters
where no 'female medical student' had ventured. Jonathan came to my rescue. He
had shown me the way to fight tooth and nail for getting what I wanted. He had
prepared me to go against the flock. He had energised me to climb the steep
straight cliff without fearing for defeat or being labeled an outcast.
The young
blood that flowed in my veins was unmindful of the consequences and like
Jonathan, I was ready to face it chin up. As a 'green
behind the ears' young girl, my perception of Jonathan stopped there. It was
inspirational to work hard to achieve what we have set out for. It was
inspirational to fight the system if need be. It gave the fire to climb ‘every
mountain and cross every brook’. There was a fearlessness of the path unseen
and not taken.
Jonathan
feared nothing but his inability to fly higher than what he wanted to. Jonathan
threw caution to the wind and life asunder to reach the dream he had wanted to.
Survival was not for food but for the goal he wanted to achieve.
As young restless
souls, we look towards the sun face up and dive headlong into the turbulent
waters. We hurtle us towards the horizon on the rainbow of our dreams,
collecting abrasions and cuts on the way that we carry proudly on our shoulders.
With stars in our eyes and fire in our heart we move forward, inching towards
our goals, unruffled and uncaring about the difficulties that are strewn in the
path. It is that age where the power to mount the insurmountable lies deep in
the heart and all that hurts are the midnight oil fumes burning bright as
nights melt into days and the horizon appears closer than what it was. The
single-minded determination of achieving the unachievable ploughs the body
forward, the tiny flicker of light far away beckons the tired body and the joy
of struggle fills the heart with warmth of the impending success.
As one
climbs the steps inching closer to the dream, the feathers fall off and the
bones hurt. But the heart is exhilarated with the sweet smell of achievement.
It doesn’t matter that you have paid a price, it matters that you have made it!
Meeting Jonathan after decades
Quote
‘The gull
sees the farthest who flies the highest’
‘As days
went past, Jonathan found himself thinking time and again of the Earth from
which he had come. He stood on the sand wondering if there was a gull back
there who might be struggling to break out of its limits. The more he thought,
the more he wanted to give something of the truth he had seen to a gull who
only asked for a chance to see the truth for himself.’
‘ You,
Jonathan, can show a gull how to see beyond a thousand miles’
Unquote
A lifetime
was spent in pursuing the dreams, following the heart, facing the challenges
that came with it, building the moments, days, years brick by brick to build
what one calls life. Yet there had to be a pause to look back and understand
what I had done this far and look ahead to know where I wanted to go. The
passion that was work had seen me through the smooth and rough patches as is
with every person who dares to leave the flock and learns to fly rather than
live to eat! The toil and the late nights, the sweat and the palpitations, the
thought and the plan, the recovery and the reward were all there to make me
realise the strength of my decision and the freedom to fly ‘where no gull has
ever been’. Life came with its frills of a family, children and social
responsibilities that completed my world. Life introduced me to the joys and
sorrows of living the dream. The path was walked, treaded, bruised yet
strangely satisfying.
Then came
the crossroads of an uneasy sense of lack of fulfilment, when I met Jonathan
again. It was time to find the meaning to my existence and to the path that lay
ahead. My knowledge was beneficial to the many, many suffering souls who walked
into my clinic to be delivered from pain and disease and more often than not,
walked out happy and relieved. The blessings only multiplied the joy of knowing
that the struggle was worth every heart beat that had gone haywire till the
patient went home.
Yet there was a sense of emptiness, a sense of
incomplete achievement in-spite of having walked through the dream. The
proverbial thorns had long past stopped causing pain. The work had fallen into
a routine and a plateau had struck that made me restless, wondering where I was
heading or if I had just fallen into the rut of routine!
I met Jonathan again on the crossroads that
once again challenged my restless soul.
My decision
to become a teacher came after a few months of pondering and then realizing
that like Jonathan, it was time to be the fire beneath the wings of those who
were dreaming to fly into the unknown. The emptiness, the restlessness or that
incomplete feeling seemed to have found its answer. I had to give strength to
the dreams of those who wanted to walk the path taken by me and so many others
who chose to follow their dreams. The cycle of life had to go on. Jonathan had
chosen me to help perpetuate that innate desire in each one of us to explore
our limits and go beyond them.
As ‘green
behind the ears’ students came to me for knowledge, Jonathan guided me to make
them understand their ability to look farthest so that they could fly highest.
The knowledge I had acquired from my teachers and the most important teacher of
all, life itself, had to be passed on to the eager, restless, inquisitive young
ones just setting out on the path unseen. I reveled in the happiness of holding
unlearned hands and guiding them through the mysteries of the body till they
could maneuver on their own. I found happiness in finding answers to the
barrage of questions that came out of inquisitive minds. I had found my path,
yet again. Imparting whatever I had learnt about my subject became that purpose
that brought meaning to my existence.
My search
was over. Jonathan had found me yet once again.
A decade of
being the teacher has gone by. As the baton passes and as I gradually fade into
the sunset, there will be Jonathans to take the next generation of young
restless souls to that edge of the cliff from where they can spread their wings
and soar towards the limitless sky. They will have found the purpose which
defines us as beings with a meaning.
Jonathan
lives on, in all of us!
